


Focus on the Here and Now

by Morning66



Series: SBTB [2]
Category: Saved By the Bell (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:13:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,014
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24512122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morning66/pseuds/Morning66
Summary: "Slater and I kissed," Zack blurts, all in one go, but the words are clear enough Jessie can't pretend she didn't understand.
Relationships: Zack Morris/A.C. Slater
Series: SBTB [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805815
Comments: 6
Kudos: 34





	Focus on the Here and Now

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! I’ve been off school and was watching SBTB so I wrote this. :)  
> It’s basically just Jessie and Zack talking, the romance stuff is just kinda referenced FYI.

When Jessie gets home, Zack's sitting at her dining room table, chair leaned back on two legs, halfway through a pile of cookies and a glass of milk. Her mom's perched next to him, face full of laughter at something Zack must have said. Jessie rolls her eyes at the scene, watching for a minute before they notice her presence. Zack's always been good with girls, and unfortunately that seems to now extend to her mother.

"Jessie!" Her mom crows when she sees her, rising to give her a quick squeeze. "Look who's here! He stopped by to see you and I told him he could wait with me. Give an old lady some company!"

"You're not old, Mom!" She considers adding a comment regarding age and beauty and the value of women in the eyes of sexist men, but thinks the better of it.

"Oh nonsense! You're both too kind!" She reaches up to pinch Zack's cheek. "Your friend here's grown from a naughty little boy into a wonderful young man who was great company!"

Jessie has to physically force herself not to roll her eyes. She loves Zack like a brother, but can never, under no circumstances, imagine the phrase 'wonderful young man' describing him. She doubts her mom would either if she knew even a quarter of the things he gets up to.

"The pleasure was all mine," Zack responds, and Jessie considers slapping him because, no, he cannot use that tone with her mother. If he wants to flirt with every girl at their high school, fine, but not her mom.

"You're making me blush! Now, you two run along upstairs and call me if you need anything!" Her mom waves them away with a grin, winking at Jessie once Zack's started up the stairs.

Jessie sighs, following Zack upstairs. When he leaves for the day, she's going to have another talk with her mom, reiterating the fact that there's nothing romantic between them and never will be, only ever friendship. Zack's the brother she never had, nothing more, though certainly nothing less either.

Once they're in her room, Jessie takes a seat on the bed, but Zack just paces, all manic nervous energy that's starting to scare Jessie.

"What's up, Zack?" Jessie asks, cutting to the chase.

"I don't know, Jessie. What's up with you?" He's grinning, but it doesn't totally reach his eyes.

Jessie frowns and doesn't immediately respond, prompting the corners of Zack's mouth to dip a bit.

Zack's swift and a talented actor as evidenced by his numerous outlandish schemes, but he doesn't fool her. She knows him inside out and back again, the way she knows her house, every squeaky step, every crack in the wall. He came over for a reason. If he'd just wanted to hang out, he'd have popped in through the window and popped out when he realized she wasn't there. But no, he waited with her gossipy mom for who knows how long just to talk with her.

"Why are you here, Zack?" She asks, not unkindly. It's not that she minds him here, just that there's a reason behind his visit and she wants to get to the bottom of it.

Zack slouches against the wall near the door. "I can't just visit my friend?" He shakes his head. "Cruel, Jessie, cruel."

"You could, but I'm pretty sure there's an ulterior motive here."

Zack smiles, but it's not his usual grin."You always were the smart one, Jessie." He gets up and walks over to the bed, taking a seat on the ground, back against the mattress where she's sitting.

Jessie laughs. He's as smart as she is, if not more. He just applies it to different things. Not that she plans to tell him that, of course.

"C'mon, what's up, Zack?" Jessie reaches down and places a hand on his skinny shoulder.

"I did something bad," Jack says, staring at his knees which he's pulled tight to his chest.

Recognizing the seriousness in his voice, Jessie joins him on the floor, back pressed against the mattress, shoulder pressed against Zack's. "I hate to break it to you, but you've done a lot of bad things, Zack."

He sighs, still not looking at her. "This is a different kind of bad."

"Is it worse than flirting with my mom?"

Zach laughs, a shadow of his usual laugh, but a laugh all the same. "I mean, you can't blame me. She's a babe!"

Jessie slaps him lightly on the cheek, gentle with no malice. "You pig!" While it's an insult, her voice is affectionate.

Ten seconds pass, and then he looks up, his eyes boring into hers, bright and brown, and filled with enough fear to scare her. His face is pale, a grayish hue that can't be healthy. Something's wrong, she realizes. Something's really, really wrong.

"Zack," she says, her voice carrying the weight of the world. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

She feels him shrug against her shoulder, jerky and quick.

"Do you remember what happened with the caffeine pills?" she asks, her voice shaking a bit at the rawness of the memory, the hurt it still carries. "Remember how I was really, really scared, but you helped me? I can help you too, okay?"

There's a long pause where neither of them moves and Jessie starts to think that maybe she'll have to find some other way to get her friend to open up. Then, when she's almost given up on a response, Zack speaks.

"Slater and I kissed," he blurts all in one go, but the words are clear enough Jessie can't pretend she didn't understand.

For a second, all the thoughts leave Jessie's mind, before coming back all at once, a whirlwind, a tsunami of questions, all swirling around. This wasn't what she'd thought. This was nowhere close to anything she'd even considered. Zack getting arrested for a felony, maybe, but him kissing her on-again, off-again boyfriend? No way.

"Is this some kind of joke?" She doesn't think so, but he's the king of pranks and schemes so she has to ask.

"No." And there it is, that one little word, laden with meaning and heavy with a million different emotions.

Her mind zigzags a million different places, reevaluating every interaction between the two of them over the years. Freshman year when they fought over Kelly constantly and afterwards when their friendship mellowed. The jokes, the nicknames, a little fake flirting here and there that they all laughed at. Stares and friendly touches, an arm here, a hand there, that in retrospect might have been slightly more than platonic. She wouldn't have guessed it, but she can see it.

The silence stretches like taffy, sickly-sweet and gross, and Zack's not looking anywhere near Jessie. She knows she needs to do something and soon before she scares him off or breaks something in their friendship permanently, but she's not sure what. She'd never really known these things existed anywhere but in jokes yelled in the hallways, in whispered voices by adults that lead to head-shaking and shameful silence. Certainly she never thought it could exist between her friends.

But that doesn't matter, she thinks. I have to do something right now.

So she takes his hand, presses their palms together, his shaking, hers a bit sweaty, the same way they've done a million times over the years. He looks up and meets her eyes and she sees the same fear as before in them, but also hope and that breaks down any last resistance she has.

"It'll be okay. Okay, Zack? It will." She's not sure if it will or won't, but he needs to hear that more than she needs to be honest.

"You're not mad?"

Jessie thinks for a moment. Logically, there are two issues here: that he kissed her recent ex and that said recent ex he kissed is also a guy. And, yes, it does hurt that it was with Slater, but at the same time there's a bigger issue at stake here.

She shrugs her shoulders. "Someday, we'll have a talk about etiquette with your friend's ex's, but it's okay. We're okay. We're always okay."

There's a smile forming on his face. "You're the best, Jessie."

She turns so they're facing each other, keeping his hand in hers. "So how'd it happen?" she asks because he told her this much, now he has to explain it.

Zack shrugs, his face turning vaguely pinkish, making him look a little younger. "I don't know! It just happened, I guess. I didn't mean for it to happen, but it did!"

"Hey, calm down, okay?"

Zack shrugs his shoulders. "I just don't know what to do! I mean Slater... and Kelly...and it's not like I'm..." He trails off. "I like girls, Jessie!"

"No one said you didn't." No one ever would. She thinks for a second. "Maybe...maybe you like guys too?"

He shrugs and looks at her miserably, but doesn't deny it. "What should I do, Jess?"

Jessie bites back a comment about why would she know. "Have you talked to Slater about it?"

"Not really. He's kinda avoiding me, I think. But then I'm avoiding him too so..."

Jessie rolls her eyes. Boys. "Well, maybe you should start by talking with him. Remember what Mr. Belding told us when we were doing the play?"

Zack snorts. "Mr. Belding will give good love advice the day pigs fly."

She smiles at his joke, glad to see him a bit more upbeat. "Well, it worked for us, didn't it?"

Zack laughs, but then a serious expression crosses his face. "If me and Slater kiss again, I don't think it'll have the same result as with us."

Jessie sighs and squeezes his hand twice in succession. She'd bet her college money he's right. Two guys kissing with no prompting, no play to egg them on? Yeah, there's probably something more there than just misunderstood friendship. "Well, remember what you told me? It's better to know the truth."

"Using my own words against me." Zack shakes his head.

"They were pretty smart words, for you anyway."

"Hey!" He objects petulantly. Jessie laughs, glad he's in a little better spirits.

"Listen, Zack. Just talk to Slater and work out what's between you. Then, we'll figure out what to do from there."

"We'll?" He questions, raising his eyebrows.

Jessie shrugs and grins at him. "You brought me into this. I'll help you."

Zack smiles back at her gesture of camaraderie. "Thanks, Jessie."

"Anytime."

They talk for another hour after that, about school and the distant past and where they'll be a couple years from now. It's nice to be together, just them, safe and comfortable and familiar in a way nothing seems to be anymore, with college and careers looming just around the corner. It's what Jessie needed and she thinks it's what Zack did, too.

He hugs before he leaves, their bodies pressed up against each other, safe and secure. "Friends?" He asks, and she thinks he sounds just a little bit more unsure than usual.

"Forever." She promises, voice resolute.

And then, with a final grin, he climbs out the window the same way he's done a million times before. Soon, she thinks, he won't be able to pop in her window anymore because they'll be at different colleges, possibly in different states. She banishes that thought from her mind. There's no use in focusing on that when they still have senior year stretching out before them, a million essays and tests and afternoons spent at the Max.

There goes Zack, into the night. Zack, who's pulled more tricks than anyone she knows, who she's wanted to slap more times than she can count. Zack, who was there for her at her darkest moment, who she knows would fight the entire world for her. Zack, who's chased girls his entire life, but might be falling for a guy. Zack, who's been her best friend all her life and, she knows, always will be.


End file.
